Patrick's Sailing Blog

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• Good site for travel health info

  Blue Water Cruisers need to have all their shots up to date and its also good to know if there are any odd medical issues before you plan to visit someplace. The CDC has a handy site with this information. Link and summary from the Scout Report. Centers... Posted Jun 27 2008, 12:14 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Safety and Rescue, Trip Planning, Medical Kit, Getting Ready to Go

• Big Ole 130' sailboat runs aground

  Here's some USCG video of the Adventuress run aground today (ok, yesterday I'm not one to sleep). Navagear also posted the USCG info today , if you're a local you should be following that blog! Posted Jun 24 2008, 12:03 AM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Safety and Rescue, USCG District 13

• Switlik Raft Recall

  Inflating seems like one of the key things a liferaft should do. That and float; the rest is just icing after those two are taken care of. Switlik has found some issues with rafts as they've been doing annual servicing. Kudos to them for owning up... Posted Jun 19 2008, 12:04 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Safety and Rescue

• Safety Glasses with the cool auto-tint

  These are pretty stylin as safety glasses go and they will also auto-tint which is perfect for those above deck\below deck kind of projects. Apparently they are $45 which isn't too bad if you'll actually wear them! This come your way via ToolMonger... Posted May 28 2008, 12:50 PM by Patrick with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Gear, Safety and Rescue

• XM Radio has a deal on XM WX Satellite

  XM Radio has a deal on XM WX SatelliteXM Radio has a deal ($0 activation and 1 free month) currently going. I found out about this in the Nobeltec Newsletter and couldn't find anything on the XM Radio site about it. Here are the details for the discount... Posted Nov 20 2007, 06:00 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Radios of All Kind, Weather, Safety and Rescue

• Boater Information System

  The Boater Information System (or BIS Portal) from the Washington Sea Grant and APL UW is a pretty cool site that allows you to overlay wind, tide, current information on a map. The site is completely custom and worked great for me in IE7.0. As an example... Posted May 19 2007, 12:33 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Weather, Safety and Rescue

• Forward Osmosis Desalinator - Sea-Pack

  you may have seen the Sea-Pack written up in Blue Water Sailing or Latitudes and Attitudes but I wanted to pass it along for those who haven't seen it because quite frankly I think is pretty dang kewl. It seems like the perfect thing to stuff in your... Posted Apr 30 2007, 09:00 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Gear, Safety and Rescue, Desalination

• Homemade Ice Packs

  Here’s a handy hint from a geek site I read called LifeHacker. MacGyver Tip: Dishwashing liquid ice pack "The detergent stays cold much longer and it can be re-frozen over and over. It also molds to your back better than ice." The author... Posted Feb 01 2007, 11:24 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Safety and Rescue, Medical Kit

• USCG Expands Search for Jim Gray

  Turns out the USCG has expanded not cancelled its search. http://www.latitude38.com/LectronicLat/2007/0207/Feb01/Feb1.html#anchor1085433 OLD message here: While the USCG has cancelled its search friend, family and volunteers continue the search. Here... Posted Feb 01 2007, 10:38 AM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Safety and Rescue

• Microsoft Employee Missing in waters off SF

  According to Microsoft Watch , and the San Francisco Chronicle , Jim Gray from Microsoft Reasearch's office in San Francisco is missing in his C&C 40' Tenacious. Let's all hope things turn out for the best! Posted Jan 30 2007, 09:45 PM by Patrick with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Safety and Rescue

• Direct from Panbo... Marine Flare Recall

  This is straight out of Panbo …. check your flares kids ! Mind the flares, a product recall Apparently there’s a bad batch of Paines Wessex white collision warning (Mk7) hand flares out there, specifically batch numbers 2045 through 2046, which were distributed... Posted Apr 20 2006, 10:43 PM by Patrick with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Gear, Safety and Rescue

• Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System (PORTS®)

  NOAA announced back in August that it had PORTS data available for the lower Columbia . Well woop dee doo is what I thought because I had no idea what it is, so I dug in a little bit and poked around and ya know what its pretty cool! Basically you can... Posted Jan 10 2006, 10:40 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Sailing, Cruising, Weather, Safety and Rescue

• Oregon Crank Callers Caught !

  Back in November I posted a press release from USCG District 13 asking for help in catching the folks who participated in several crank calls which resulted in search and rescue missions. Well they were caught! You can see the press release including... Posted Dec 21 2005, 04:31 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Sailing, Safety and Rescue

• USCG Float Plan Link Update

  I posted previously about the USCG’s Float Plan. Just wanted to let you know that this form has moved to a new URL. http://floatplan.uscgaux.info/ Posted Dec 21 2005, 04:26 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Sailing, Safety and Rescue

• REWARD OFFERED AS COAST GUARD SEARCHES FOR HOAX CALLER

  This is a press release, but I thought it was worth passing along. It strikes me as incredibly lame that someone would fake a distress call. I can’t wait to reading about them catching the guy (and yest it will be a guy) who did this. REWARD OFFERED AS... Posted Nov 29 2005, 02:43 PM by Patrick with | with no comments Filed under: Safety and Rescue